The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Trump Can’t Keep His Hands Off MBS as Epstein Files Release Is Imminent | Sean Sherman

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

Ronny Chieng dives into Trump’s friendly meeting with Saudi Crown Prince MBS despite the president's famously anti-Muslim past, and covers the latest updates on the release of the Epstein files, which was quickly approved by the House and Senate and now seemingly has the endorsement of the president himself. That said, Jordan Klepper offers a few reasons why we might not like what we see. Grace Kuhlenschmidt tackles Russia’s first face-planting robot, an AI version of your dead granny, and does America want music that's fully AI-generated? Tech yeah, they do! James Beard award-winning chef Sean Sherman sits down with Ronny to discuss his new book "Turtle Island: Foods and Traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of North America." They talk about using food as a tool for promoting curiosity and empathy, focusing on Indigenous and healthy foods at his restaurant, Owamni, passing on indigenous knowledge of plants and sustainability, and imagining a modernized Native American culture and cuisine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Comedy Central. From the most trusted journalists at Comedy Central, it's America's only sorts for new. This is The Daily Show with your host, Ronnie Tang. Welcome to The Daily Show. I'm Roy Chang. We got so much to talk about tonight. You can upload your grandma to the cloud now.

Someone paid for expediter shipping on the Epstein files, and Trump and MBS do hand stuff. So, let's get into the headlines. Yesterday it was a big day at the White House because Donald Trump got to have a play date with Muhammad bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. and all-around great guy who definitely doesn't hold a grudge

and I, Ronnie Chegg, have no problems with. And the two of them couldn't keep Trump's hand off each other. We've worked with all presidents. Does Trump blow him all the way? A ton of the league, Mr. President. Thank you. Mr. President. And Trump doesn't give a fist pump.

I grabbed that hand. I don't give it hell where that hand's been. I grabbed that hand. What the hell was that? That was the worst handshake I've ever seen. That was like the 9-11 of handshakes. And once again, Saudi Arabia is involved. Okay.

And Trump, why are you wondering where his hand has been? You're the one whose hand is decomposing. Now, you might be wondering, wait, how is Donald Trump best friends with MBS? Isn't Trump the Muslim band guy? Then he just spent a month calling Zora Mandani a terrorist? Well, the difference is that Zoroamandani is a Shia Muslim whose family comes from Uganda by way of India, whereas MBS is giving Trump money.

The Trump Organization already has multiple projects in Saudi Arabia, including Trump towers in Jeddah and Riyadh, and a Trump Plaza in the works. In the last year alone, the Trump Organization's Saudi partner, pumping more than $20 million into the family business. Wow, three Trump towers in Saudi Arabia? See, America can f*** up your skyline, too. But enough about collusion between global elites,

let's move on to the Epstein Files. Yeah! Where my App heads at? Just me. Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted to release the files thanks to brave Republicans like Nancy Mace, who was very clear about not being a part of the Epstein network. The Epstein email suggests that, in fact, there is a widespread code among people with power and money who support one another.

Does that exist in Washington? I'm not part of the powerful. I'm not part of the elite. I'm an island of one. I don't get invited to parties. I don't have any friends. I have a dog. Are you fishing for an invite to the sex party? Like, why did you make not being a part of a pedophile ring sound so sad? There's a middle ground

between Epstein Island and friendless loser. Like, walk the middle path. I mean, she doesn't go to party. She doesn't have friends. She does have a dog. But after a day with her, even the dog's like, where's Christine Nome when you need her? But thanks to these Republicans,

the House voted to release the Epstein files. And I just cannot believe this is going to happen. Trump has been trying to stop us from seeing these files for months now. I mean, they must have some plan to drag this thing out. House Speaker Mike Johnson says he expects the Senate to amend the bill, which would then send it back to the House. Of course. That's the plan.

Yeah, it's obvious. They're going to let it pass the House because they know it will go to the Senate, a.k.a. where the legislation and senators go to die. Breaking tonight in Washington, D.C., the Senate has unanimously agreed to pass the bill to release the Epstein files.

Wait, what? Wait, wait, how... How the f***ed it passed this fast? I thought a bill in the Senate had to go through amendments and committees and floor votes and Mitch McConnell's neck folds. And they have to add some unrelated earmarks that somehow make Lindsey Graham.

millions of dollars. Like, how'd they get around all that? Senate Democrats pressured their Republican counterparts to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act by something that's called unanimous consent, meaning the Senate accepts the House version of the bill as written. Wait, you can do that? Unanimous consent? Well, then why don't you do that with every bill? I mean, does it only work on bills with Epstein's name? In that case, we might need to pass the Jeffrey Epstein universe,

Health Care Epstein Act featuring Jeffrey Epstein. No, don't... Why are you cheering Jeffrey Epstein? But back to this bill. There's no way they're going to let this pass, okay? Yeah, I got through the House and Senate, but I'm sure Donald Trump will veto this bill

as soon as it reaches his desk. President Donald Trump says he's ready to, to sign the bill as soon as it reaches his desk. Wait, my God, what the hell is happening here? Is Trump really going to release the Epstein files? He's not going to burn them or hide them or put them on Baron's head so no one can reach them. I can't believe this.

Look, there's just no way that this man is going to release the Epstein files that he is in. I mean, he must have a plan to get out of this. We should note, the legislation, as it stands, clearly says, quote, the attorney general may withhold or redact personally identifiable information of victims or victims' personal and medical files and any material that would jeopardize

an active investigation or national security. Yeah, there we go. See, that's how they're going to keep this file secret. National security. America's go-to justification. It stops us from bringing shampoo on a plane. It puts terrorists on bananas. And soon, it can prevent you

seeing if the president is a pedophile. And by the time Pam Bondi is done with these files, there'll be more censored than the airplane version of anora. Now, I'm not saying we'll never see the Epstein files. I'm not saying we will. All I'm saying is, we need to find other clues that the president inappropriately touches people. Now, for more on the release of the Epstein files,

we go live to the DOJ with Jordan Klepper. Clapper. How close are we to seeing these files? Well, Ronnie, it looks like these files might be released next week, but we're all praying our hardest that something happens to delay that outcome. What do you mean?

I want to know who the pervets are. Do you, Ronnie? You think you do. We all talk a big game about wanting to know who all the perves are. but then you find out it's America's sweetheart, economist Larry Summers, and you're devastated. I mean, was he my favorite economist?

No, but top three for sure. Dude, who gives us shit about Larry Summers? You're telling me you're not into Larry Summers? Not even his early stuff? I mean, his Clinton-era treasury meetings redefined the genre, man. But now, I feel gross even looking at inflation numbers from the mid-90s. Klipper, separate the art from the artist, okay?

And no one gives us shit about Larry Summers. It's not just Larry Summers. Epstein had a lot of friends, and we haven't thought through how wide his network was. I mean, what if Dolly Parton's in there? You want me and my wife to stop singing islands in the stream at karaoke? It's the only thing holding my marriage together. I mean, what if one of your favorite people was on Epstein Island?

Give me someone you love. Oh, I'm pretty dead inside, but if you forced me to say something, I guess I do love the Muppets. Okay, all right. What if Kermit the Frog is in the Epstein Files? You think it's not easy being green? Try being publicly outed as a pedophile. Jordan, please don't ruin the Muppets for me.

Let me tell you about having things ruined for you, Ronnie. Years ago, every Thanksgiving, I would sit down with my favorite Jared Fogel. approved turkey sandwich. Crap, coconut, a big jello pudding pop, and I'd watch Matt Lauer host the parade and wait for the big Kevin Spacey balloon.

But, no, now I've got to eat turkey with my family and watch Savannah Guthrie host the parade. Do you have any idea how f*** that is, man? Okay, okay, that sounds terrible, I agree, but these rich,

famous people shouldn't be protected just because they happen to have fans. It's not just some people. This is every purve, everywhere, all at once. It's going to destroy the country. The banks go under, the economy collapses. I have to go back to my job waiting tables at P.F. Chang's. I'm not doing that, Ronnie.

I'm not spending every Saturday walking up to 14-year-olds talk rapping. I'm P.F. Chang, and I'm here to say, I hope you have a Chang-tastic birthday. No! No! No. Jordan. It's not going to happen.

Okay, Jordan, I, look, I know there might be some short-term pain, but it will let us do the work of rebuilding a society from the ground up that doesn't put us under the rule of elite perverts. That sounds like a lot more work than just not releasing the files. Yeah, yeah, yeah, actually you're right. I got tired just saying that, yeah. Jordan Klepper, everybody. When we come back, we find the latest in tech, so don't go away.

Welcome back to the Daily Show. Technology will one day kill us all. But until then, it's pretty cool. To find out more, we turn to Grace Cooling Smith in our ongoing segment, Tech Yeah. What up, my techno nerds? I'm Grace Kulin-Schmidt, aka Gracie Gizmos, aka Lil Wire Fraud. This is Tech, yeah, where I tell CPU all about the biggest stories in tech. And to our future robot overlords watching, I say,

I can say that because I slept with one robot. But let's hop into warp speed and fly over to Russia for the release of a robot that'll blow your tech in mind. Russia's first humanoid AI robot made its debut in Moscow this week, and it definitely did not go as planned. Finally, a robot that feels like a real person. Because I also have a drinking problem. And it's not the robot's fault. He fell. He took 27 shots of machine oil.

You should see me after three. I'm literally in the hospital bi-monthly because the human body cannot handle machine oil. I was in a coma for weeks. And for all the people worried about robots, taking our jobs, relax. For every job this robot takes, they have to hire two guys to pick it up off the ground.

Sometimes, I get sad that I'll miss out on the robots taking over our planet. But good news, here's something that'll keep us technophiles alive for checking ever. A tech company offering an app that allows you to keep a grandparent or us, grandparent or other loved one alive for generations. To create a digital granny, you record three minutes of video while they are still alive. The AI app copies their image, mannerisms, and voice. Hey, Charlie. How is school today?

It was really fun. I made this crazy shot in basketball. I don't really care that much about that. Yes, this is awesome. She tells me to shut up about my interest, just like a real grandma. I can't wait for my grandma to die so I can turn her soul into data.

And yeah, maybe you're nervous to have grandma live on the same device you watch porn on. But next time you're struggling to pick a category, your grandma can chime in like, Grace, anime milfs with big naturals are a family tradition, Kari, Love you, Gigi. But the most beautiful part of this technology

is that it lets you say things to your dead relatives that you regret not saying while they were alive. Like, I'm sorry, I unplugged your ventilator to charge my phone. And I'm sorry, I kept charging my phone so I could post about you dying. And I'm sorry for deleting the post after it didn't get enough likes. I just wish this technology was around a few years ago, so my grandpa could have attended my wedding. People said our love wouldn't last because she's a robot and I'm white.

But love conquers all. And finally, all this new technology is so tech and beautiful. It makes me want to sing. But luckily, AI can do it for me. can do it for me. He's a ruggedly handsome country singer with a strong voice destined for stardom. Ain't no shame in where I be alone. Well, hold on to your cowboy hat.

He's 100% all AI generated. His name is Breaking Rust, and now his song Walk My Walk is number one on Billboard's Country Digital Song Sales Chart. I am shocked A guy named Breaking Rust Isn't real That makes him so much hotter I've been throwing my panties at my computer

Just to get his attention This is exactly what country music is all about Dirt Roads, Blue Jeans and decimating the power grid of a small Midwestern town Yeah And I know you're probably wondering Can this technology write a song about anything?

Yes. Just how easy is it to create a song completely generated by AI intelligence? What I'm going to do is create a song about the TV show Inside Edition, simply by typing in here, make a song about the TV show Inside Edition. Inside Edition, shining the light on the shadows we hide on the secrets of night. This is literally the song I make love to. You wouldn't believe how horny I am right now. Now, I know some of you might be thinking,

wow, I do not like the idea of AI replacing human creativity with digital slop. And that's a good point, but here's a counterpoint. The time we have on Techia. See you next time. Where I'll teach you how to turn any car into a driverless car by simply letting go of the steering wheel. Great cool internet, everyone. When you come back, Chef Sean Sherman,

we'll be joining me on the show. Don't go away. Welcome back to the show. My guest tonight is a James Beard Award-winning chef, whose new book is called Turtle Island, foods and traditions of the indigenous peoples of North America. Please welcome chef Sean Sherman. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Welcome, Chef. Absolutely. Thank you. My first time meeting you, but I ate at a restaurant years ago in Minneapolis. Right.

And I'm walking in, and I passed by it, and it was a Native American restaurant serving Native American cuisine. cuisine. And I remember going, I have never seen this before in America, which is really sad. Let me go and eat it. And it was amazing. What was the, what was the, why aren't there more Native American restaurants? That's a long story. And we talk a lot about that. But, you know, it's unfortunate that Native American restaurants are so rare in Native America. And so a lot of this work was really trying to, you know, showcase that this was possible that we could have a modern

indigenous restaurant. You know, and we have a lot of values. We try to purchase from indigenous producers as much as we can. We change very seasonally. The restaurant's owned by a nonprofit, you know, so we hire a lot of native workers with us, and we have an amazing staff. We move a lot of money towards those indigenous producers, and we're just kind of showcasing because we never want to be stuck in the past, you know? We don't want to, we've been through all this erasure. We've been through all this misunderstanding. But there's so much beauty here, and, you know, there's, you know, the food really kind of speaks for itself. And I mean, the thing that struck me was some of the hallmarks of your interpretation of Native American food.

There's certain nose in the restaurant that you don't have, which I found interesting. Absolutely, because basically the philosophy was in order to showcase and highlight modern indigenous foods in Native America, we cut out European colonial ingredients that European immigrants had brought over. So there's no dairy, no wheat flour, no cane sugar, no beef, pork, and chicken. No jello. No jello, no ranch dressing. You know, we won a James Beard Award for Best Restaurant in the U.S. without ranch dressing. You beat the white people at their own award.

That's true, it's true. Yeah, but I mean, no ranch dressing in Minneapolis. Yeah. How do you get people in the door? Oh, well, they're coming. We've been sold out every night since we opened in 21. Yeah, it's impossible to get in. I had to pull strings to try to have lunch there.

But that's also kind of what's cool is that you gave people kind of rally point. Because I think there's a lot of people out there will probably want to support Native American things. Yeah. And there's no, there's no outlet to do it. And the restaurant, I probably say it, Owami. Awameney, yeah. Oamony is a great place where it's a great rally point where it's like, oh, I want to support not just Native American culture and people. You know, I actually want to try what this is, and you can just go there and try it.

Absolutely. I mean, it's very tangible. and, you know, people can experience this philosophy. And we're pushing healthy food because, like, everything in the restaurant is gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, soy-free, pork-free, you know, and it's just because of us just the philosophy of how we're cooking. And we're normalizing not only indigenous foods, but eating healthier, a lot more plant diversity, a lot more protein diversity, and just kind of showcasing what's possible, you know, and plus we're looking at all of North America from Mexico through Alaska, which kind of reflected in this book that we just put out.

But, like, we see, like, this whole situation because these borders crossed us, you know. And it's silly that we're seeing, like, so much demonization of people because they're coming from south of the border and they're speaking Spanish. But English is also a foreign language in North America. Right. Yeah.

Well, I'm done. Yeah, and I mean, just back, back on that idea of eating healthy, it feels like we kind of, as a species, humans, we kind of know more about nutrition than ever before, I think. And everyone, you know, is trying to eat healthy. now and it feels like Native American food just fits perfectly into that mindset. Absolutely. I mean, there's so much plant diversity again.

It's low carbs. It's just a lot of minerals and nutrients. There's a lot of this protein diversity. It's not over processed food by any means, you know, because these aren't the foods that I grew up with because I grew up on a reservation. So I'm from Pine Ridge Reservation, which is third largest reservation. It's in South Dakota, you know, and we have horrible statistics. You know, we have really high rates of type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease.

Our unemployment rates are like through the through the roof, you know, there's probably over 70% still today. And so there's a lot of issues out there, and that's what we're trying to address is because as indigenous peoples, we've been, you know, not only lost a lot of our land spaces, but we've, where so much of our culture was stripped from us, which is a big reason why we don't see native restaurants everywhere, you know. Yeah. And so there's a lot of work and the power of food is really important because it's a huge voice that we all understand. We all eat. We all can understand food. It's a cultural

force multiplier for you, at Lee Point. Yeah, yeah. And I just think that it's just going to, it's something that pulls us together and it makes people curious and it helps put a little empathy into things for people to think about why don't we have more native food out there? Why don't we have more native restaurants out there? And what can we do to make that happen? Yes. And so getting to, I guess this crowd doesn't support what you just said. But they, it's okay. I know, the colonizer crowd. So, but let's talk, but that brings me to your book, which is that it's a book about Native American cuisine. And what's interesting, which I feel is kind of a burden on you,

is that you, one man from Pine Ridge, is forced to kind of represent all of Native America here. And you do a good job of it. You go to different regions. It's split up all the different regions on Turtle Island, which is the North American continent. And you talk a little bit about each region and the cuisine there, the type of people, how they live there,

How difficult was it to kind of gather the information for this book? Well, it's not just... It was immense amount of work, and it took a community to put this together. You know, so the two co-authors with Kate Nelson and Kristen Donnelly, we all played a certain role, helping to put this all together. But we also reached out to this massive network all over Turtle Island, you know, in Mexico, in the US, in Canada, up in Alaska, and just talk to people to really get their perspectives, you know.

So it wasn't me trying to mansplain everybody's native foods out there, It was really just allowing these voices to come through to talk about it and showcasing all of this massive diversity because there's so much to talk about, you know, and there's so little that people know about Native America in, you know, across the United States. And a lot of that's because of our colonial U.S. history books that teach us nothing about indigenous peoples, you know, and there's so much to learn. And there's so much knowledge about the plant usage for medicine, for food, for crafting. And there's just so much diversity to explore out there. And there's also, obviously, the environmental angle. Absolutely, because it's just showcasing, like, indigenous people had the blueprint to live sustainably anywhere, you know, like pick a space around the world. And so because we had, you know, thousands and thousands of generations of knowledge of what to do with the world around us, with the plants and how to live sustainably around there, there's a lot of amazing lessons that we could pull because really this isn't just about Native Americans in America.

This is looking at indigenous peoples. And we can apply this anywhere. This could be South America, Africa, India, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, because we can just like dismantle, colonization and the values that that brought and really focus on like this massive global intellect and knowledge base of indigenous peoples of being sustainable with the world around us and all this diversity of food and culture that's out there sure and um yeah which is the world we go and also what's what's cool about your restaurant and recipes here i think your interpretation of native american food to me is that it's not like and you make a point of this at the start of the book is

that you're not trying for historical accuracy here. Yeah, we're not a museum. Right. You're not trying to eat what they ate back then. For me, it's almost like, it's like, if Native American culture have been allowed to modernize to today, if it had been allowed to develop, this is the outcome.

Absolutely, because we have this moment now that we can evolve all of our food moving forward. So for me, this is a book for the future, because I feel like I'm a futurist. Like, I'm seeing a better way that we can celebrate diversity, not try to homogenize it. We can understand how to live closer. We can have a lot more plant diversity, you know, and stop, you know, calling everything a weed, but starting to learn the names of everything. You know, I always tease that kids can name more Kardashians than tree species

because our education system sucks, you know, and there's so much more that we can do. That's not fair. Some of these trees are called Kim. That's true. That's true. I'm going to be confused. But yeah, all the recipes in here look beautiful. And just in time, for Thanksgiving, I guess. I don't know about you, but I didn't grow up with Thanksgiving. I feel nothing about Thanksgiving. If you don't, I mean, how are Native Americans, you know? Well, I mean, how do they deal with this onslaught of Thanksgiving?

I have a lot of friends and family that don't celebrate it at all, you know, and just completely ignore it because it is very. damaging to have this mythology you know that just focuses on this made-up moment of history of you know a native and pilgrims coming together and so it's just like you know that some people just be like well you know we're paying respect to native peoples but you know but you're also just saying like forget about like these centuries of land like moving and moving you off of your land genocide all these things that happened and throughout US history and just

but remember that time we had dinner together yeah it's not good it's But I feel like, I feel like it is an important holiday that we do get a moment to come together, you know, and if you want to pay respect and you want to, you know, be an ally and, you know, understand indigenous culture, you know, pay respect. Think about the land that you're standing on. Learn a little bit about the history. Learn about the tribes that are living in Bayou. Buy food from indigenous producers. Buy a native cookbook, you know? Yeah, yeah. And, um... I love it. I was very lucky to go visit the Native American Museum in D.C., yeah, yeah. And what I loved about it was, it was kind of what you're describing, your vision of Native American culture, which is this kind of, what if Native American culture had been allowed to modernize into today, and the building, the architecture is all Native American inspired.

And you go in there, and what I loved about it was that it's not just misery porn. Right, right. It's celebratory as well. Yeah, yeah. And one of the rooms in there that was, it's a very bright room. I don't know if the exhibit is still there. The undertones are obviously upsetting, but the overtones, it's a bright room. And it was saying how everything in America is Native American.

We use the names everywhere, Chicago, Illinois, Minnesota, yeah. You know, Washington professional football team. like even the logos of like American spirit cigarettes and we see we actually in America see Native American names and culture everywhere but we never hear from them right yeah and again like there's so much amazing stuff going on across Native America you know because we're starting to see more Native chefs come out we're seeing a lot more native media with TV shows and movies and a lot more representation of Native people's doing what they're doing a lot more arts a lot more

just everything, you know, and I think that it is time for us to, like, not be pushed into the shadows and not just be, you know, pretending like we're just on these reservation systems, these segregated communities, but, you know, allowing us to be a part of everything, too, you know, and I do expect this book to be banned in Florida, but it's important because we should learn these histories because it's American history. Like, we all share the history here, you know, and we shouldn't be afraid of history. We should learn from it. And history can be really hard to read sometimes, you know, but I feel like we should understand the pain and trauma that some people had to go through, especially, you know, indigenous people. It's like my tribe, Lakota, like we were still battling

the U.S. government until the turn of the century because like wounded knee massacre happens in 1890, and that's not ancient history. You know, that's the point when we started losing a lot of our culture because that's when we're being really forced onto the reservation systems. My grandparents' generation are going through boarding schools, having to cut their hair, learn English, learn Christianity, and just changing everything that they were from Lakota into something different, you know. But it's just layering on so much trauma to those generations that we still feel a lot of that coming through. You know, so when you really look at what happened to indigenous peoples and, you know, other people, like black and indigenous in American history, especially, like, they're so interwoven together with the stuff that we had to go through that, you know, food can help us pull through this. You know, I think it's important we understand our histories.

It's also important that we see the future. Yep. Thank you, Mark. And, look, thank you so much for preserving it. And thank you for providing a rally point for people who want to be an ally. And thank you for sharing your knowledge of us. And I hope you can keep sharing it

because there's a lot to learn. Thank you, Chuck. Thank you so much. It's Turtle Island. It's available now. Chef Sean Sherman. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back after this.

That's over. Thanks a much. All right. Thank you so much. That's our show for the night. But before we go, this Thanksgiving, please consider supporting Feeding America. They are the largest hunger relief organization

in the United States. If you can support them in their work, please donate at the link below. Now, here it is, your moment of Zen. I'm all for the environmental, everything. I'm all for climate change. You know, they have newer climate change. It used to be global warming.

It's global warming. Well, that didn't work because it started coming down. They did the global cooling thing. Then they just said, we can't keep up with this. It's too much. So we'll go perfect words. Climate change. Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe

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